the_fiction_multiversefandomcom-20200213-history
Where to Begin With This Wikia
Welcome to the Fiction Multiverse Wikia, a community project centered around the construction and expansion of a world where most fiction (as much as we can fit in) coexists and influences each other. What Is This? The Fiction Multiverse, or the FM for short, is an idea that RADDman1, the creator of this Wikia, has had for several years now. It started off as a personal world-building project to help practice some creative writing skills, then it became a subreddit that really ballooned over a couple of years, and now there's the Fiction Multiverse Wikia, intended to compile the ideas the users come up with and discuss on that subreddit into one easily navigable online encyclopedia. The basic idea behind this is putting as many works of fiction as possible into a single coherent universe and timeline (but it's called the Fiction Multiverse in case we want to include some alternate timelines and parallel universes). Sure, it's not the first time it's been done - people on Reddit have mentioned the Tuesday Next series when RADDman1 described this idea, and there was definitely some inspiration from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill and the Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman, which were in turn inspired by Phillip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Family. However, given that there are at least four popular works centered on their own twist of the massive crossover concept, there shouldn't be a problem with our own original take. Besides, it's fun! Concepts Governing the FM Some basic things to understand about writing for the Fiction Multiverse are as follows. The Main Timeline and the Main Universe The Main Timeline defines the chronology of this world that receives the most explication and emphasis. While there are many, many differences between this history and our real world history, it still resembles ours to an extent. For example, even though there is Adenoid Hynkel exists in place of Adolf Hitler, he still does much of what Hitler did (Hynkel is what we call a historical replacement). This allows for works of fiction more definitely set in the real world, such as Catcher in the Rye, Ferris Bueller's Day Off (film), and Seinfeld (TV series), to exist in the Fiction Multiverse more or less intact. It's also just rather convenient. However, sometimes we get awesome ideas that would deviate from our own history, as well as pre-establised FM material, too much to fit in the Main Timeline. The creation of alternate timelines, such as the Ingsoc Timeline, is definitely allowed. Despite this, ideas for the FM should still at least try to be fitted into the Main Timeline before it is decided that it works better as an alternate timeline. Also, it is preferred that we place more emphasis on expanding the Main Timeline than on creating a potential slew of alternate ones. Similarly, the Main Universe describes the setting, the world itself, that receives the most explication and emphasis. There are also innumerable differences between this fiction-tinged universe and the universe we live in, but there is still a resemblance. What is meant by that is that there may be secret havens containing dinosaurs in South America in the FM, but there is still a South America; and there may be a hidden Nazi base on the Moon, but there is still the Moon, with the same dimensions and the same distance from and effect on Earth. "Main Universe" does not merely describe the Earth and its peoples. There are potentially thousands of species of extraterrestrials in fiction, from Kurt Vonnegut's Tralfamadorians to an increasingly crowded Mars to the galaxy's worth of beings in Star Wars. However, most fiction tends to be Earth-centric, and the FM reflects that. It's always great to make more articles expanding on our knowledge of the rest of the cosmos, but we should still keep the main focus on happenings taking place on or relating in some way to Earth. Then there are things like CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia (book series), Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (book series), and all these other works of fiction where the protagonists find themselves in or arriving on Earth from parallel universes. They are not exactly located on the same metaphysical plane as Earth within their stories, meaning they're not on the same plane as the Main Universe - hence their designation as parallel universes. Their existence and writing about them is allowed and encouraged, but as with the matter of timelines, we still want to focus on the Main Universe and try as hard as we can to place our ideas on this world before resorting to saying, "It's in the Mushroom Kingdom." The Uncertain Future There is so much fiction set in the future and so many different visions - utopias, dystopias, ones where we're just settling the moon, ones where we have colonies in distant galaxies, ones where the world is destroyed by climate change, ones where the world is destroyed by robots, or aliens, or natural gas, or nuclear exchange. Obviously, some of these visions clash with one another, and it'd be difficult, and perhaps a but unfair to all works excluded, to decide just which direction the FM is headed in. With that said, RADDman1 feels that it is best for the future of the FM to remain uncertain and for anyone working on this world to assume that the current time and date of the FM is the current time in our world, right now. This is being typed on October 1, 2015, so as of this writing, any works of fiction set anytime after October 1, 2015 have yet to happen in the FM. However, there's a loophole where we can set up the possibility for certain works to happen. For example, the Nazi moon base from Iron Sky (film) is, as of October 1, 2015, currently gearing up for an invasion of the Earth. Whether or not it will actually happen in the FM will not be known until 2017, when the film is set, but mentioning the moon base means that 1) it might happen, and 2) Iron Sky can still be counted as a work included in the FM just because its premise is part of the world. The Connections Principle Let's get something straight here: this whole project is a massive fanwank. Alan Moore's goal in writing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is to use our fiction and popular culture as a reflection of our society. That's great and something we should try to strive for, but it's also okay that our main goal is to connect as many works of fiction as possible while still making some modicum of sense. The balance between these two things - geek-out crossovers and trying to make sense while we're at it - is why we have alternate timelines and parallel universes. George Orwell's nightmarish vision from 1984 ''(book) affects the history of the world far too much - even the existence of DC Comics and Marvel Comics's casts of superhumans doesn't cause as significant a deviation from history (most of the time). That is why it is in its own timeline. Even then, that timeline was only really created because ''1984 had the potential to connect with other works of fiction, such as Brazil (film) and "The Unknown Citizen" (poem). This brings us to The Connections Principle. We may want to put in our favorite works of fiction (redditor /u/thecnoNSMB is always looking for ways to reference the TV series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), but it should still try to connect in some way. This can mean connecting to another work of fiction: for example, someone who wants to include Seinfeld into the FM could write briefly of a notable event where Superman saved the life of Morty Seinfeld. Besides tying a character of the show to a major figure in fiction and the FM's history, it also provides a plausible origin for the presence of the obsession that Morty's son, main character Jerry Seinfeld, has with Superman - something that is documented in the show. It can also mean connecting to the overall world and history of the FM, which can be a bit tenuous, but it's better to try. Metropolis (film) is a German silent film set in a massive futuristic, well, metropolis. It is included in the FM by declaring that this is the Berlin Metropolis, the industrialized and urbanized and central section of the German capital of Berlin. Sure, we could easily just make an article for a work that wouldn't clash too much with the world or history - for example, The Breakfast Club (film). Saying that five students from different cliques bonded one Saturday morning in 1985 would not cause much controversy, and it can just be assumed to have happened in the FM. Indeed, it could be. However, without connecting to anything else, it would just seem ... lacking in substance. Pointless, even. Basically, it's just more interesting and, one might say, more fun to have connections than to have a work in the FM just so it can be there. How Do I Get Involved? If you have an idea, that's fantastic! Share it with the subreddit and we can discuss it, brainstorm together, and decide what definitely works and what might need some tweaking. As for the writing of an entry: to see the style of the wiki, you could try searching up a work of fiction you like on the Search Bar at the top, or clicking "Random page" for a more freeform exploration. There's also the List of Works Referenced in the Fiction Multiverse, which is recommended reading before creating a page for a work of fiction, just so you don't accidentally make a page (it's also another way to see if something you like is in the FM). A quick note: the original FM Encyclopedia, which contained all the information on this world, was two massive Google Documents. With the creation of this wiki, a current focus for building it up is the transfer of info from the original FM Encyclopedia into Wikia pages. That's why this wiki may be a bit scant.